The Art Works Monsters line is nearing the top of the list of my favorite kind of designed figures from Megahouse.
Unboxing / Assembly / Review
Figure Review
I bought it here
More info about the figure here
Otaku Sinh’s collection
¥19,690 (Figure) + ¥4990 (DHL Shipping) = ¥24,680 or $187.00
Timeline
Shopping w/ Hobby-Genki.com
Check out my other blog posts where I go deeper into Hobby-Genki here, here and here.
Hobby-Genki Highlights
- A trustworthy anime figure website from Osaka, Japan
- MFC partners for another layer of trust
- Fast and slow shipping options at competitive rates
- Utilizes a “Private Warehouse” where you can combine or separate orders within 60 days
- “Pay Later” option
- Gets “Aniplex” exclusive figures, Kotobukiya ARTFX-J bonuses & other Bandai Exclusives
Concerns?
- The currency you pick at the time of purchase is what you are stuck paying with
- Shipping options are not automated for selection after entering “Private Warehouse.” You must ask for shipping quotes.
Shipping
- Hobby-Genki shipping boxes comes in regular brown boxes
- The figure box was wrapped around 2-3 layers of bubblewrap
Boxes
Outer Layer Brown Box
- This is your standard Megahouse Box
- Many Bandai companies are packaged with their own branded box
- It looks like Hobby-Genki made a shipping error and it caused the quality of the box to be damaged
Actual Figure Box
- It’s a standard box with pictures of the figure and logos on the box
- The purple smoky theme is represents this figure perfectly
- The creators put a little more effort into the “details” w/ silouhette Dark Magician on the side of the box
- The highlight of the box is definitely the front side of the box w/ an amazing drawing of the figure instead of just a picture
Assembly
- The figure comes with the Dark Magician figure and the staff with a hand attachment
How to Assemble
- To Assemble, all you need to do is remove the peg insert from the Dark Magician’s right hand and insert the hand with the staff into it
- Then, you can turn his hand to position it to your liking
Aesthetics
Design
- The design of this figure is a great choice overall w/ the extra details
- The detailed metallic look for this Dark Magician is by far my favorite idea for a design for this character
- If you look at his Yu-Gi-Oh cards and his animation design, this Art Works Monsters version brings a new fresh flavor to Dark Magician’s overall aesthetics
- This purple version is better than the blue version(preference) released last year
- Also, I just really like the more human looking version of the character more for this figure
- It’s pretty much a ⅛ scale size at 9 inches tall
Sculpt
- All of the gold painted parts of his body and especially the hanging part of his robe is fantastic
- The shoulder part of his robe looks nice
- The face, the hair and staff are all very well done with extra detail to bring out a more realistic feel
Paint
- Preference comes into play with the gold & purple paint and how you perceive the quality of it for this specific design
- Gold paint can give a lot of issues and here we have the purple paint mixed in with some parts of the gold paint
- Other than the gold paint issues, the overall shading and coloring of this figure looks great
- That metallic and grimy look of this figure makes it look a lot more realistic and alive
Errors & Issues?
- If you pick him up and look directly into his eyes, he’s kind of looking off to the side, which looks natural
- If you sit him down, eye level with yours, it looks like he’s looking up into his hat, which obviously makes no sense
- That is my biggest knock on this figure; his painted eyes needed to be lower because the positioning of his eyes makes it look like he’s looking directly into his hat, giving it an awkward look
- I tried to mimic the manufacture pictures, but the prototype pictures look more natural
- You’d have to display him on the top shelf if you want to get a better view of his face
Pictures
Last Thoughts
Out of all the Dark Magician figures that I have seen, this design has to be my favorite. Regardless of the eye situation being painted in a little higher than I would have liked and the paint quality, everything else about these Art Works Monsters line is right up my alley of the kind of figures I like. How this Dark Magician looks so much more real with the extra details of the sculpt, paint and the little engravings, makes it worth the price. Once again, the purple variant looks more fitting for the Art Works Monsters line over the blue variant option. Either way, I think this is a solid figure you’ll likely be happy with. Because of how amazing the overall look of it is, I am willing to overlook the eye situation and paint, which I can’t say about any other figure I have right now.
The best word that describes this figure is “grimy” in the best way possible. This is where the little errors here and there don’t bother me. It actually makes the presentation of the figure make a lot of sense. The purple shadings and the golden metallic paint makes the figure look so damn awesome. This is a one of a kind figure for this style of Dark Magician. In the YouTube video, I said I probably wouldn’t buy it again, but I certainly don’t feel any buyer’s remorse right now. All in all, if you like the design, are okay with the paint quality and the positioning of the eyes, this one might be the one for you.
Price wise, I think up to $220 seems fair and you can still get it at US anime figure stores like Ukiyo Kumo for around that price.
P.S. Also, there is a Dark Magician girl figure that is currently in the works that I have nearing the top of my wishlist. Check it out here!
OTAKU SINH 